 |
Arthur:
“Do you want anything?”
Hobson:
“I want to be younger.” |
Today
is my birthday. My present is a trip to Hawaii to surf in calm waves in warm
water and visit my brother and his wife. It will be fun. The trip, that
is, not necessarily my birthday. When I was a kid, I wanted birthdays to come
sooner because with enough of them I could become a freewheeling adult. I
discovered adulthood didn't include as many privileges as I expected,
but birthdays remained great fun. At least for a few decades. Now ... not so
much. Instead of blowing a party horn, I catalogue my aches and pains. In
truth, I’m grateful to be relatively fit, with a great family and loving
wife.
My
biggest problem is remembering to get up from my writing chair to get some exercise. I become so
engrossed with my characters, I sometimes have to cause a distasteful dispute so I can leave them to their own devices. When I return from a long walk or an hour
of surfing, my characters’ tempers have abated enough that I can get on with
the story. I know you think I’m kidding, but …
I'll leave you with my life’s goal. I want to be the first person over one hundred
years old to break the four-minute mile. This may sound tough, but I
intend to train for an entire decade to achieve this goal. It will be hard and
consuming work. Thank goodness my ninetieth birthday is still far off in the
future.